Worship and Magnificence in Naples between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. The Case of Noble Chapels

Mariano Saggiomo

The project aims to reconstruct the power strategies implemented by the city’s nobility in the Cathedral insula through the appropriation of sacred and civic spaces. In fact, the main lineages aspired to acquire chapels within the Cathedral and simultaneously build real city churches, with monumental facades visible from the public street and, when possible, in close connection with their own residences. The study of such dynamics, combined with timely genealogical insights, will also help to shed light on the rationale underlying the establishment, preservation and transmission of giuspatronati, as well as on the reasons for the dedications of places of worship and the devotional choices at the origin of artistic commissions.